Eight SA universities in top 100 in the BRICS nations

South African universities have slipped since 2014, with South Africa trailing significantly behind China, India, Brazil and Russia in the QS University Rankings.

The QS University Rankings: BRICS for 2015 evaluated 400 universities in the BRICS countries. Only 14 South African universities were evaluated.

China remains at the top with over 100 universities evaluated, 39 of which made it into the top 100. Chinese universities took seven of the top 10 spots.

While China has 67 universities in the top 200, Russia came in second with 53 universities featured, but only seven Russian universities made it into the top 50 compared to China’s 21, Brazil’s 10 and India’s nine.

BRICS Country

Top 10

Top 20

Top 50

Top 100

Top 200

Top 400

China

7

9

21

39

67

110

India

1

5

9

15

31

94

Brazil

1

2

10

18

40

93

Russia

1

2

7

20

53

93

South Africa

0

1

4

8

11

14

Of South Africa’s 14 universities evaluated, only one ranked in the top 20, four within the top 50, eight in the top 100, and 11 in the top 200.

Nine of the 11 institutions listed in the top 200 from South Africa have fallen since last year.

“These are poor results which have been getting poorer,” the QS group said.

However, with a population of 54 million, South Africa is by far the smallest of the BRICS nations. It is almost 20 times smaller than China and India.

South Africa’s top institution, University of Cape Town, is down five places from last year, ranking in at 14th place.

“This means that South Africa has 5.5% of the BRICS’ top universities despite comprising only 1.7% of the population of the BRICS nations,” the group said.

University

2015 rank

2014 rank

University of Cape Town

14

9

University of the Witwatersrand

28

31

Stellenbosch University

34

34

University of Pretoria

49

46

University of Johannesburg

67

63

University of KwaZulu Natal

68

60

Rhodes University

79

76

University of the Western Cape

100

92

University of the Free State fell from the 101-110 to the 121-130 bracket, while Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and North-West University remained in the 151-200 bracket.

University of Fort Hare, University of Limpopo and University of Zululand all remained in the 201+ bracket.

The QS University Rankings: BRICS is based on eight key performance indicators, relating to global reputation, internationalization, academic staff levels, and research production and impact.